Fewer employers are requiring college degrees for new hires

About one in six U.S. job postings require at least a bachelor's degree, a share that's been declining since the pandemic in data from Indeed Hiring Lab.

The share of vacancies requiring a college education fell to 17.6% in October from about 20% in 2019. That represents tens of thousands more jobs potentially available today for the more than 60% of Americans who didn't graduate from university, Indeed said in a report.

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Facing acute labor shortages during the pandemic recovery, employers sought out workers that may be skilled but lack formal degrees. Major corporations like IBM Corp. dropped four-degree requirements to attract a larger pool of candidates.

As the job market moderated this year, the share of vacancies that don't ask for a secondary degree leveled off. But it stabilized below pre-pandemic levels.

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The trend has implications for recent college graduates, who have had a harder time finding a job that matches their skills and have seen their wages falter. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis showed that more than 4 in 10 recent college grads are underemployed, meaning they're working in jobs that typically do not require a university degree.